Environment

Offshore Energy Industry Fights Complacency on Safety | Forbes – Energy columnist Loren Steffy recently returned from a conference in Scotland While a lot of attention has been focused on process safety in recent years, Steffy noted, one of the themes of the conference was that offshore companies tend to grow complacent the farther removed they are from an accident.

One fellow speaker noted that the drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico that followed the [Deepwater Horizon] accident should have been viewed as a “safety stand-down,” an industrywide exercise in pausing operations, assessing risks and adjusting operations accordingly. Instead, many companies operating in the Gulf chose to simply attack the Obama administration for enacting the moratorium in the first place.

New Orleans police on Wednesday will unveil a new online database of private surveillance cameras. Businesses and residents will soon be able to register their security cameras with SafeCamNOLA so police officers can quickly find and contact owners of cameras near crime scenes and suspects. That footage will help investigations, police say.

Government & Politics

Weed the people | Gambit – The cover story begins with an irresistible lead: “One important assumption marks the strategy of Louisianans for Responsible Reform (LRR), a new bipartisan organization that advocates for lessening jail time for marijuana users: Most lawmakers don’t find themselves in the presence of many joints, spliffs, bongs or brownies.”

Gambit’s pun-filled but informative issue devoted to marijuana-related issues explores the push for legalization and sentencing reform. It includes a list of Ten marijuana bills worth watching. Also, former New Orleans resident Kari Harden describes her experience purchasing pot in Colorado. I’d point out that not long ago, a “weed issue” might have been seen as a gimmick. The political landscape is changing — quickly.

Mark Moseley blogs at Your Right Hand Thief. Until mid 2014, Mark Moseley was The Lens' opinion writer, engagement specialist and coordinator for the Charter Schools Reporting Corps. After Katrina and the Federal Flood he helped create the Rising Tide conference, which grew into an annual social media event dedicated to the future of New Orleans.